Mahjong Tour

Inlogic Software builds Mahjong Tour as a sequence rather than a single board. Each level is its own screen, dressed in its own theme, and finishing one simply hands you the next — the tour of the title is a tour of layouts and looks. More of the same shape sits in the Best New list.

The matching is straightforward: tiles of the same type, taken in pairs, which then flutter away off the board. What varies from level to level is the arrangement and the difficulty, and Inlogic makes the point that the later stages are meant to be challenging rather than merely decorative. The Candy board sits beside this one among the layered boards.

The 800 by 600 canvas is the standard one for stacked tile layouts, tall enough to show several tiers at once, and the build is made for touchscreens as well as for a mouse. Mahjong keeps the layered board and changes the shape.

1. Open a level and read the themed layout in front of you.
2. Find two tiles of the same type that are free to take.
3. Match them and watch the pair flutter off the screen.
4. Clear the screen entirely to finish the level and move on to the next theme.

• Finish the screen, not the section — the game only advances when the last tile has gone.
• Re-read each new theme — Inlogic changes the artwork between levels, and a symbol learned on one board looks different on the next.
• Expect the later levels to bite — the tour is built to get harder, so habits that carried the early screens will not carry the last ones.
• Take the top tiers first — on an 800 by 600 stack the upper tiles are what hold the lower ones in place.